{"id":23830,"date":"2020-01-15T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23830"},"modified":"2020-01-15T13:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:16:00","slug":"industrial-court-rules-no-state-assembly-can-fix-pension-gratuity-for-ex-governors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23830","title":{"rendered":"Industrial Court Rules No State Assembly Can Fix Pension, Gratuity for Ex-governors\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nBy Thompson Yamput<\/strong> (NAN)
\nThe National Industrial Court sitting in Jos on Monday dismissed a suit filed by Alhaji Garba Umar, former Deputy Governor of Taraba, seeking N236 million as gratuity and pension.
\nDelivering judgment, Justice Kenneth Amadi, dismissed the suit for lacking in merit.
\nNews Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Umar was appointed deputy governor on Nov. 12, 2012 by late Gov. Danbaba Suntai, following the removal of Alhaji Dani Abubakar-Danladi by the State House of Assembly.
\nJustice Amadi held that no State House of Assembly has the power to fix gratuity and pension for former Governors and Deputy Governors other than the National Assembly as contained in sections 124(1)(5), 210 and 32(d) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
\nThe judge said that the \u201cwords\u201d of the Supreme Court that \u201cAlhaji Sani Abubakar-Danladi remained the deputy governor of Taraba.
\n\u201dThe Supreme Court on Nov. 21, 2015, was very clear and unambiguous. \u201cThe (words) need no further interpretation to find their meaning except to hold that at all material times, Abubakar-Danladi remained the deputy governor of Taraba while the claimant (Garba Umar) in this case was never the deputy governor of that state.
\n\u201cThe period when Abubakar-Danladi was purportedly removed was held to be a period of interruption in his office. Any invitation to read any other meaning or connotation to the holding of the Supreme Court aforesaid amounts to an invitation to commit judicial rascality.
\n\u201cI am bound by the decision of the principle of stare decisis,\u201d the judge declared.
\nX-raying sections 32(d), 84, 124(1)(5) and 210 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), Justice Amadi said: \u201cit is not in dispute that the power granted to the state house of Assembly to provide for pension and gratuity is a mere directory or permissive power which is not mandatory.\u201d
\n\u201cTherefore it is very clear that a house of Assembly in Nigeria lacks the power to fix any amount in remuneration to its past Governors and deputy governors; as pension or gratuity unless the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has first of all determined any amount in pension and gratuity.
\n\u201cSince RMAFC has not fixed any amount as pension and gratuity to past Governors and deputy governors in Nigeria, any law made by the state house of Assembly granting same to past Governors and deputy governors is therefore null and void.
\n\u201cTo that extent, I hold that the Taraba State Governor and Deputy Governor\u2019s pension Law, 2015 is null and void.
\n\u201cIn all, the claimant\u2019s case is completely lacking in merit and it is hereby dismissed, \u201c he declared.
\nOn the counter claimed filed by the state Government for the refund of all salaries enjoyed by the claimant while in office for two years and payment of N80 million as general damages, the judge struck it out as being \u201cstatute barred\u201d and awarded no cost to either side.
\nNAN reports that the former deputy Governor (Umar), through his Counsel, M.M. Nuruddeen, SAN,\u00a0 prayed the Court to compel the Taraba Government to pay him N236 million being his unpaid gratuity and pension while in office between Nov. 14, 2012 and Nov. 21, 2014.
\nUmar, who was later sacked from office via a Supreme Court judgement of Nov. 21. 2014, claimed that the demand for N236 million was in accordance with the Taraba State Governor and Deputy Governor\u2019s Pension Law, 2015 passed by the State House of Assembly on May 15, 2015.
\nThe Supreme Court in its judgment in Appeal No. SC\/416\/2013, declared that Alhaji Sani Abubakar-Danladi, who was impeached, remained the deputy governor of Taraba State and was reinstated with immediate effect.
\nChallenging Umar\u2019s claims, the Taraba Government, through its Counsel, led by Mr Chris Abongaby, argued that by virtue of the Supreme Court judgment, Umar was not entitled to any gratuity or any retirement benefit \u201csince there was no lawful and valid record that he (Umar) ever held or exercised the office he claimed.\u201d
\nThe government, which asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of merit, further prayed the court to rather compel the former deputy governor to refund to it all monies paid to him as salaries during the period he served as Acting Governor and deputy governor and N80 million as general damages.
\n\u201cThe Supreme Court has declared Alhaji Dani Abubakar-Danladi as bonafide deputy governor therefore Alhaji Garba Umar \u2018s suit is an abuse of court process and should be dismissed.
\n\u201cAlhaji Garba Umar must be made to tender a public apology to the people and government of Taraba State for the undignified and unlawful seizure and usurpation of office of deputy Governor\/Acting Governor contrary to law and decency of the demand of constitutional democracy,\u201dAbongaby said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Thompson Yamput (NAN) The National Industrial Court sitting in Jos on Monday dismissed a suit filed by Alhaji Garba Umar, former Deputy Governor of Taraba, seeking N236 million as gratuity and pension. Delivering judgment, Justice Kenneth Amadi, dismissed the suit for lacking in merit. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Umar was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[47,769,350],"class_list":["post-23830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-governors","tag-industrial-court","tag-pension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}